MEN and MACHINES in EARLY HARVARD SCIENCE' ALLEN D. BLISS2 .Haward University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
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ARVARD COLLEGE had its origin in an act of the General Court (Legislature) of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which on Septemher 8, 1636, voted to charter a college and made an appropriation of four hundred pounds for the purpose. Like much modern legislation, this act in itself could not produce a college, and on November 15, 1637, it was voted to locate the new college in Newtown rather than Salem, and a Committee of Twelve was appointed to carry out the act. The Committee chose Nathaniel Eaton and e laced him in com~letecharae of the proiect : provi&ng staff and h;ildings, collecting - a& handling the funds, finding, instructing, feeding, housing and supervising the students. All this progressed slowly, during which time the General Court changed Newtown to Cambridge (May 2, 1638), and soon thereafter the new college received its name. John Harvard was educated in England, came to America in the summer of 1637, lived and preached in Charlestown for several months, and died there of tuberculosis on September 14, 1638. Harvard had been a friend of Nathaniel Eaton and left his library of some four hundred books as well as one-half of his estate (amounting to several hundred pounds) to the Colony for the estahlishment of a college. This bequest was allotted to the newly formed institution, and it was given the name of its benefactor (by vote of March 13, 1639). There is a popular misconception (of very early origin) that John Harvard founded the College; actually it already was in existence, the Harvard rbequest doing much to help it to its feet. Actual records are lacking, but it seems very likely that Master Eaton "started school" before September 7, 1638 (while John Harvard was on his death-bed), with perhaps a dozen-odd students, a faculty of himself, and Mrs. Eaton in charge of student bed and board. Disciplinary and dietary troubles marred this first year of educational work, and in the summer of 1639 Eaton was in court for heating his newly hired collaborator, "Usher" Briscoe, misuse of college funds, and allowing Mrs. Eaton to serve the studeniswith bad food, or, at times, none at all. Eaton escaped from town without paying his fine, and school closed. In August of 1640 the Reverend Henry Dunst-, newly arrived from England, was appointed President of Haivard College, reorganized the school, and re-
sumed educational work with such good results that the first Commencement was held in 1642. As a report of his work and for publicity, President Dunster issued in 1642 a pamphlet entitled "New England's First Fruits." A study of this report shows that in 1642 the college course required three years, each school year being divided into four quarters, with no vacations. The A.M. degree was given a t the end of three more years with evidence of work and proficiency.
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J o i i ~WINTHROP
The President did practically all of the actual teaching, with some tutorial assistance, the curriculum consisting mainly of Greek, Latin, logic, and theology. The science instruction comprised a quarter each of physics and botany for first-year men, and arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy for the seniors. This schedule was maintained with occasional difference of content and emphasis (resulting from personnel changes) for many years. About 1653 President Dunster lengthened the course to four years, to equal the requirement in English universities, but did not change the three years for the A.M. Presented before the Division of the History of Chemistry College catalogs being a creation of the last century, at the ninety-eighth meeting of the A. C. S., Boston, Mass., and containing little other than September 12,1939. financial matter, it is somewhat hard to ascertain ,.. 2 Present address: Yale University, N ~ WHaven, Connecticut. the 353
effects of time on Harvard course offerings of this period. A report by the president about 1694 and a listing in 1726 show officially about the same curriculum as in 1642, but other evidence indicates progress and expansion. Geography appeared in the list,
after 1686, with the "adoption" of Charles Morton's "Compendium Physicae" as a text. Morton was a well-educated and experienced English scholar who came to the Colony in 1686 with the hope of succeeding to the Presidency of Harvard. In this he was disappointed, but he was chosen to the Harvard Corporation in 1692, his scholarly and modem book was much used by the students (with a considerable increase in physics "Majors"), and his scientific influence was very wide. Medical instruction was not given systematically as
instruction was given in trigonometry, surveying, and navigation, and a telescope was acquired and used diligently after 1672. By 1723 physics, which contained, of course, all that was known of chemistry, was given t o each of the three upper classes. The teaching method a t that time in nearly all subjects
was to provide a synopsis or course outline, and then ,fill this in by lectures and required reading. In the early decades the physics outline was based on the old Peripatetic philosophy, but a change was made soon
such a t Harvard prior to the Revolution; many graduates, however, studied with practicing physicians and joined the profession in that way. During this period chemistry does not appear as a study separate from physics, but various Harvard graduates made a name in it. Nathaniel White, A.B. 1646, became known for his work in chemistry and alchemy, as did Gershom Bulkeley, A.B. 1655, "eminent for his skill in chemistry,"-as well as in medicine and alchemy. George Starkey (Stirk), A.B. 1646, practiced the science in Europe and was a friend of Robert Boyle. Changes and progress in course offerings frequently have a direct connection with faculty personnel, and the development of Harvard science shows many examples of this. The Hollis Professorship in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy was endowed in 1726 from the estate of Thomas Hollis (1659- 1731), who also donated library books and scientific apparatus; the first appointee to it was Isaac Greenwood (from 1727 to 1738), and one of the most famous holders was John Winthrop (1714-1779), A.B. 1732, who was appointed in 1738. During his tenure Holden Chapel (the Harvard science building at a later time) was built (1744), and there occurred the disastrous Harvard Hall fire
(January 25, 1764). In this fire Harvard lost a fine building (the predecessor of the present Harvard Hall), the library and all the scientific apparatus (equipment for demonstrations in mechanics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, and astronomy). The Colonial Government replaced the building, and the other losses were partially made up by donations from ,alumni and friends. Amonrr the larger contributors were a later Thomas ~ o l l i s -( ~ n ~ l a g d )John , Hancock, and Benjamin Franklin, who supplied some valuable apparatus. The "Donations Book" did not itemize Franklin's gifts, but it is quite certain that there were included two large static electricity machines and a vacuum pump, which are still preserved by the Harvard Physics Department. John Wintbrop died in 1779; later Hollis Professors have been Samuel Williams (during 1780 to 1788), Samuel Webber (1789 to 1806, when he was chosen President), John Farrar (1807 to 1836), Joseph Lovering (1838 to 1888), B. 0. Pierce (1888 to 1914), W. C. Sabine (1914 to 1919), Theodore Lyman (1921 to 1926), and Percy W. Bridgman (1926 to date). As the eighteenth century neared its end, the desirability of providing medical education became evident, and the Harvard Medical School began to come into being. The study of chemistry was a necessary part of a medical education, and a Professor of Chemistry and Materia Medica was appointed in 1783. This professor was Dr. Aaron Dexter, and he was the chosen man when, in 1791, the Erving Professorship of Chemistry and Materia Medica was endowed by the bequest of Major William E ~ n g . This instruction in chemistry, unfortunately, was only for the medical school men, and students in the College could not take it except as extra work. Soon after 1800 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts put up a Medical Building in Boston, to which most of the work was transferred. A certain amount of the more elementary medical school instruction was continued in Cambridge (probably because of joint faculty limitations) and the ro ms in Holden Chapel were converted to lecture an demonstration purposes in 1814. The Erving Professorship endowment was divided in 1816 to provide professorships in both medicine and chemistry; incumbents of the latter have been Aaron Dexter (1791 to 1816), John Gorham (1816 to 1827), John White Webster (1827 to 1850), Josiah Parsons Cooke, Jr. (1850 to 1894), Charles Loring Jackson (1894 to 1912), Theodore William Richards (1912 to 1928), and Arthur B. Lamb (1928 to date). Benjamin Thompson (1753-1814), of Woburn, Massachusetts, was largely self-educated and worked in chemistry and engraving. Thompson's sympathies were with the British during the Revolution, and for this reason he fled to England in 1776; later he went to France and Bavaria, having achieved fame in natural science and mechanics, and was made Count Rumford of the Holy Roman Empire. Death ended Count Rumford's career in 1814, and in his will he left funds to establish a t Harvard the Rumford Professorship and Lectureship on the Application of Sciences to the Useful
Arts, which has been held since 1816 by Jacob Bigelow (1816 to 1827), vacant (1827 to 1834), Daniel Treadwell (1834 to 1845), Eben Norton Horsford (1847 to 1863), Oliver Wolcott Gibbs (1863 to 1887), John Trowbridge (1888 to 1910), Edwin H. Hall (1914 to 1921), and George W. Peirce (1921 to 1940). The memory of
Horsford has been preserved in the Horsford Laboratory in the present Mallinckrodt Laboratory building, and that of Gibbs by the Wolcott Gibhs Memorial
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Laboratory (1912) in which T. W. Richards carried out his later work. Established curricula were hard to change during the nineteenth century, and even after 1800 we find Harvard men studying the old round of dead and classical
languages, logic, forensics and theology, a smattering of science, largely mathematics and physics, with a lone elementary course in chemistry. The science instruction was given in the time-honored synopsis plus lecture fashion with occasional desk demonstrations, by scholarly but old-fashioned teachers who often had been trained first for the ministry (Joseph Lovering, Hollis Professor for fifty years, being a conspicuous example). The rise of heavy industry and the engineering professions, however, soon changed all this, and
the School of Mining and Practical Geology, general acquaintance with elementary sciences seems to have been a prerequisite for admission, and more advanced instruction (research for competent students) was given in chemistry by Wolcott Gibbs, zoology and geology by Louis Agassiz, engineering by Henry L. Eustis, botany by Asa Gray, anatomy and physiology by Jeffries Wyman, mathematics by Benjamin Peirce, mineralogy
D E M O N S ~ R A T I O N BALANCETO SHOW KELATIVE D a N s r r r ~ sos GASES
by Josiah P. Cooke, geology by Josiah D. Whitney, and mining by Raphael Pumpelly. Fifteen years later (1881-1882) the College offering in chemistry consisted of descriptive chemistry, determinative mineralogy and lithology, qualitative analy-
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brought to the Faculty European-trained teachers familiar with and skilled in experimental science. For Harvard the machine age ushered in a vigorous, troubled, "trial-and-error" quarte? century which, sadly enough, was not free from disagreement and a touch of personal discord. Course offerings in the sciences in the College expanded considerably, and the demand for engineering instruction was satisfied by the organization of the Lawrence Scientific School in 1847 (Lawrence Hall, 1849), and in 1866 the closely related and short-lived School of Mining and Practical Geology. Instruction in these schools was in large part by Harvard College Faculty men arid was open to candidates who appeared properly qualified; many of the students already possessed degrees and thus imparted to the schools a graduate atmosphere and quality. In the College, the course schedule for 1865-1866 lists science courses (including electives) for the four classes: Freshmen-algebra, geometry; Sophomores -trigonometry, navigation, surveying, analytical geomWOLCOTI GIBBS etry, elementary chemistry, botany, physics; Juniors -physics, optics, astronomy, algebra, qualitative analysis; Seniors-ptics, mechanics, calculus, geol- sis, quantitative analysis, the carbon compounds, adogy, zoology. In the Lawrence Scientific School and vanced inorganic chemistry, and crystallography, all
accompanied by laboratory work. The Lawrence Scientific School gave four-year courses in several major fields: "Civil and Topographical Engineering" with the degree of C.E., "Chemistry" with a B.S., "Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy" with a B.S., and "Natural History" with a B.S., these courses being designed and intended for professional men and teachers. The College also conferred the degrees of A.M., Ph.D., and Sc.D. on terms defined in the catalog (the latter two degrees having been instituted in 1872). Almost from its inception the Lawrence Scientific School was the target of attacks, proposals, complaints, suggestions, and jealousy, both from within and with-
the matter were President Charles W. Eliot, Dr. Wolcott Gibhs, and Professor Josiah P. Cooke, Jr. In 1863 Eliot was Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Chemistry, had been in charge of much of the chemistry instruction in the Lawrence Scientific School,
and the Rumford Professorship had just been vacated by Eben N. Haysford. President'Hill engaged Wolcott Gibbs as Rumford Professor instead of promoting young Assistant Professor Eliot, who then went to Europe to study, returned to teach, and in 1869 be chosen President of Hamard Col1ep.e. Bv 1871 President Eliot and the Corporation. concluded officially that the chemistry instruction by Gibhs in the Lawrence Scientific School for the benefit of a dozen or so students was costing too much, relative to that in the College by Cooke for over seventy-five men, that the Scientific School work in Physics needed amplification, and that the Rumford Professorship had been intended as a purely physics appointment. Therefore (anticipating the spirit of the 1873 vote already mentioned) they voted to consolidate all chemical course instruction into Professor Cooke's department (Boylston Hall), and to expand physics instruction by increasing the laboratory work, space, and personnel in Harvard Hall, as well as requiring the Rumford Professor (Gibbs) to teach physics only (Gibbs had been giving a course in light and heat for some time). Professor Gibbs' research work and outstanding ability in chemistry was recognized (very inadequately) by providing him a private laboratory in Lawrence Hall. This is the official story from the President's Reports; the personal side has been mentioned by Dr. C. A. Browne in his admirable biography of the late Charles E. Munroe (A.B. 1871) recently published in the Journal of the American % ,
out; nearly every President's Report fo the Overseers from 1847 on contains some mention of discussions held, votes taken, or improvements desired. The fundamental difficulty seems to have been the problem of trying to give a traditional classical arts education leading to an old-fashioned A.B., in the immediate presence of a more intensive, specialized, practical professional curriculum (with academic competition in the near neighborhood). One of the earliest faults found was the f a d that all too often students in one division could take courses in another division only by paying an extra fee above the regular tuition, or else not a t all. This situation was remedied by vote of the Corporation in 1873 to permit free admission of students among the various departments, subject to competence and approval. This lack of coordination and resulting duplication of instruction was partially, a t least, responsible in an indirect fashion for an unpleasant situation which may have had a more concrete beginning as early as 1863 and came to a head in 1871. The principal figures in
Chemical Society (June, 1939). Munroe was assistant to Gibbs and later to Cooke and certainly was in a
ogy in 1850, and proceeded to install the experimental method of chemistry teaching in an inadequate basement space in University Hall; Boylston Hall, devoted to the sciences, was completed in 1857-1858, and to meet expansion was enlarged in 1871 by the addition of a mansard roof story. Cooke gave elementary chemistry for many . -vears, as well as courses in mineralogy and crystallography, and published research papers on these subjects, inorganic chemistry, and atomic weight determinations. Professor Cooke used many desk demonstrations, often of his own invention. One of these, still used in "Chemistry A", is a simple but convincing device for showing the "heaviness" of carbon dioxide. It consists of a little knife-edge balance with cardboard buckets on the arms. Carbon dioxide is generated by acid and soda in a large covered jar and then is ladled out and poured into one bucket with an old tin dipper, causing that bucket to sag lower and lower. Another demonstration piece of Professor Cooke's period is a pistontype vacuum pump with a five-foot handle. The whole system is mounted in and on a massive wooden stand (carrying the name-plate of "E. S. Ritchie, Boston, Mass."), the vacuum being created and used in a variety of bell-jars placed on a plane metal base. Vacuum was a difficultlywon and precious thing in the chemistry of threescore years ago, as well as appreciated by the assistant who operated the five-foot handle. The preparation, storaae, - . and use of demonstration gases also was no simple problem. position to know the strained relations between the Eben Norton Horsford, 1818-1893, received the two men, less so perhaps as regarded an Eliot-Cooke degree of Civil Engineer frqm Rensselaer Polytechnic axis. Eliot had been a student of Cooke in college, Institute in-1837. After several years of teaching and studied under him later, and the 1863 appointment of engineering work, he went to Germany and studied Gibbs as Rumford Professor may well have rankled with Liebig. On his return he was appointed Rumford in the mind of Assistant Professor Eliot, just complet- Professor a t Harvard in 1847. He carried out reing a five-year term and deservedly looking for promo- searches on various projects, usually of a practical type, and in particular on phosphate baking powders. In tion. A subject agitated a t intekals, inside and outside 1856 he founded the Rumford Chemical Works to Harvard, was closer cooperation vPith or actual con- manufacture baking powder, and in 1863 resigned his solidation of Harvard engineering with Massachusetts professorship to devote his time to the business. Charles William Eliot, 1834-1929, A.B. 1853, took Institute of Technology. One recurrence of the idea received official action by a Corporation vote (June 18, mathematics with Professor Cooke, after graduation 1870) to invite discussion with the Government of the studied chemistry under him, and in 1858was appointed Institute. The ensuing conversations between the two Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Chemistry committees concerned lasted on into the next winter, for a five-year term, assisting Professor Horsford in the dealt with three consecutive proposals, and ended on Lawrence Scientific School during 1861-1863. Eliot February 22, 1871, in a meeting of the Technology spent the two years 1863-1865 studying in Europe, committee which could not accept the last Harvard and returned to teach chemistry a t Massachusetts proposal and had no further one to make. Thus ter- Institute of Technology (in Europe again in 1867-1868) minated officially an affair which caused considerable until 1869 when he was chosen President of Harvard popular stir, especially among the alumni of the Insti- College, retiring in 1909. Wolcott Gibbs, 1822-1908, was a graduate (1841) of tute. Modern teaching methods have a dehumanizing Columbia College (now University), studied with Dr. tendency to forget that discoverers and teachers are in Robert Hare in Philadelphia, and then a t the College themselves vital and interesting beings. The rise of of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, receiving the chemistry a t Harvard was produced by and produced a M.D. in 1845, this being the only way possible of receiving instruction in chemistry. He then went to number of men whose careers deserve brief mention. Josiah Parsons Cooke, Jr., 1827-1894, A.B. 1848, was Europe, studying with Rammelsberg, H. Rose, Liebig, appointed Eming Professor of Chemistry and Mineral- Laurent, Dumas, and Regnault. On returning he
taught for fourteen years in the Free Academy (now the College of the City of New York). Gihbs was appointed Rumford Professor in 1863 and held this position, with the assignment change already mentioned, until his retirement in 1887. Gibbs was an outstanding chemist of his day, and published many papers in analytical and inorganic chemistry, especially on the cohaltammines. Frank Wigglesworth Clarke, 1847-1931, S.B. 1867, did some eraduate work with Gibhs. and then. after " several short periods of employment, was for a time instructor a t the University of Cincinnati, where he did
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slightly different problems from the present, since nearly all scientific apparatus and chemicals had to be imported from abroad, or made on the spot. There are still in storage in the Harvard Laboratory some relics dating back to this period, when vacuum pumps were imported, and the stock room help prepared the com-
mon acids by treating salts wi+sulfuric acid in earthenware WouW bdttles. Charles Edward Munroe, 1849-1938, A.B. 1871, studied under, assisted, and retained the friendship of both Gibbs and Cooke. He was assistant in chemistry a t Harvard until 1874, when he accepted a Professorresearch in minerals, their class~Zcationand analysis. ship a t the United States Naval Academy a t AnThis work led to his appointment as Ghief Chemist of napolis, and from 1886 to 1892 was located a t the the United States Geological Survey in 1883, beginning Torpedo Station in Newport, Rhode Island, where he organized the first general meeting of the American a lifetime of service to the Government and science. Charles Loring Jackson, 1847-1935, A.B. 1867, spent Chemical Society in 1891. In 1892 Munroe went to several years as assistant to Professor Cooke and then his final academic post a t Columhian College (now was appointed Assistant Professor in 1871. In 1873 he George Washington University), Washington, D. C., took a leave of absence and studied under Bunsen and where he retired in 1918 as Emeritus Professor, having then Hoffmann, with whom he worked in organic made an international reputation as an expert in exchemistry. He returned to Harvard in 1875, was pro- plosives and their chemistry. While a student a t moted to Professor in 1881, and was Erving Professor Harvard Munroe devised and perfected that useful and from 1894 to 1912, when he retired because of ill health. plebeian article, the clay filter cone, and later adapted During his long research career he published more than the platinum Gooch crucible for direct filtering by inone hundred fifty papers, largely on the chemistry of the stalling a platinum sponge mat. Harvey Washington Wiley, 1844-1930, S.B. 1873, aromatic compounds. Henry Barker Hill, 1849-1903, A.B. 1869, was a son came to Harvard with an M.D. in 1871 from Indiana of President Hill, and studied briefly in Germany, re- Medical College. He became a good friend of Munroe, turning to Harvard in 1870 to teach organic chemistry who tutored Wiley through three years of Harvard work and do research in it, particularly on furan derivatives and examinations in seventeen days. Wiley later and unsaturated aliphatic compounds. Hill succeeded taught a t Purdue University and was Indiana State Cooke as Director of the Laboratory and remained Chemist. In 1883 he entered the Govcmment servuntil his early death in 1903. Being Director involved ice as Chief Chemist of the Department of Agriculture.
His later career in food andlegal chemistry is well known. this account, especially Peirce's "History of Harvard," Charles Robert Sanger, 186G1912, A.B. 1881, did Quincy's "History of Harvard," Vaille and Clark's graduate work in chemistry a t Harvard, receiving the "Harvard Book," the various exhaustively documented Ph.D. in 1884. After a short time as Assistant, he treatises by Professor Samuel E. Morison, Winsor's succeeded Charles E. Munroe at Annapolis (1886-1892), "Memorial History of Boston," several obituary then spent seven years a t Washington University in notices in the Proceedings of the American Academy of St. Louis, and returned to Harvard in 1899. He was Arts and Sciences, the article by Professor N. H. Black Director of the Harvard Laboratory from 1903 until in the Hamard Alumni Bulletin for March 24, 1933, his death in 1912. Sanger's research was largely in the C. A. Browne's "Biography of Charles Edward Munfield of hygienic chemistry. roe" (J. Am. Chem. Sac., 61, 1301-10 (June, 1939)), Theodore William Richards, 186&1928, A.B. 1886, and various volumes of the Harvard "President's Recame to Harvard in 1885 with a degree from Haverford ports," "Annual Catalogs," and the "Gazette." The College, and proceeded to e m the A.B. in 1886, A.M. writer also is indebted to members of the staff of and Ph.D. in 1888, under the direction of Professor Widener Library, the Physics Laboratxies, and the Cooke. He then went to Europe t o study for a year, Chemical Laboratories, especially the late John H. and returned to Harvard in 1889 as Assistant in ChemHarrington of the latter, for information and help in istry, reaching the rank of Professor in 1901. Richpreparing the illustrations. The portraits of Lovering, ards' long years of research in precise measurements Cooke, Horsford, Gibbs, Hill, Jackson, Sanger, and led to the development of many ingenious methods and useful articles or devices. Of these, the "bottling Richards are reproduced from originals in the Harvard apparatus" and "nephelometer" (with Roger C. Wells) Archives (Widener Library); that of John Winthrap. from Winsor's "Memorial History," Munroe from the are among the earliest and best known. Browne obituary article whic hhas been cited, and the Franklin Static Machine from the Hamard Alumni Many sources have been drawn upon in preparing Bulletin.
